When a Child Has 3 ‘Parents,’ When Does the Contract End and Rearing Begin?

The article “One Baby, Three Parents: Whose Rights Prevail?” (Commentary, Oct. 17) contains at least one statement that is false and others that are non-factual:

False: “Fact: The answer to that question is clear. All three individuals are parents.” This obviously is not clear.

Non-Fact: “Fact: The woman who is bearing the child . . . is a parent of the child.”

Non-Fact: The close contextual relationship between “surrogacy agreement” and a child “sold as chattel” facilitates an unsound premise. Actually, a parent paying a surrogate mother might be thought of as ransoming, not buying a child, but not as chattel. On the other hand, adoptive parents paying a birth mother might be thought of as buying the child, but not as chattel.

Non-Fact: A birth mother and the biological parents “must all be recognized as the child’s legal parents.” Hopefully, the courts will rule that inclusion of the birth mother makes this false.

In any event, legislation is needed to protect a biological father, or a biological mother and father, as well as a child. All this litigation subsidizes lawyers at the expense of biological parents and taxpayers. It also stresses biological parents and ties up the courts.

FRANKLIN FOWLER, Fullerton